Description
Located in the Belmont-Cragin community (half-way between Diversey & Fullerton avenues, as well as Long & Laramie avenues), Cragin Park’s small fieldhouse sits on 3.26 acres.
Outdoors, the park offers almost a quarter-mile walking path, two softball fields, a combination football/soccer field, two tennis courts, a basketball court, a volleyball court, plus a playground with a wading/spray pool.
Depending on age and season, a large variety of programs are offered for youth & teens: Pre-Teen Club, Homework Time, Cubs Care baseball, soccer, flag football, sports club, table tennis, game room, basketball, & Teen Club.In the summer, youth can participate in sports camp and our popular and affordable 6-week day camp.
Cragin Park offers adult table tennis and a walking club, while seniors can participate in bingo, a stretching class, as well as a Senior Citizens Club.
Parents gather at Cragin Park with their preschoolers for classes such as: Art & ABC’s, Play Group, Fun & Games, & Preschool.
We invite you to stop by Cragin Park and check out our offerings!
History
Cragin Park is among thirteen parks created by the Northwest Park District, one of 22 park commissions consolidated into the Chicago Park District in 1934. In 1927, the Fullerton Avenue Highlands Improvement Association asked the Northwest Park District to construct a recreational center in that organization's Belmont Cragin neighborhood. The Northwest Park District agreed, and began to acquire parkland immediately as the Northwest Park District acquired land from 1927-1928 and vacated an alley for the park in 1929. Playground apparatus was installed in 1928, and tennis courts in 1931. The Wrightwood Avenue Improvement Club petitioned for a fieldhouse, but none was built until 1954.
Cragin Park is named for the surrounding neighborhood, which in turn took its name from a 19th-century industrial suburb. The Cragin brothers built their metals manufacturing plant along the tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad in 1883. By the following year, more than 200 people lived in the vicinity of the factory and its Cragin station.